Designer Scarlet is a product of a planned breeding program which had the objective of creating new geranium cultivars with medium green foliage, self branching habit, non-growth regulator requiring, high productivity, uniformity among colorform, fast rooting with exceptional weather tolerance and landscape performance.
Designer Scarlet was originated from a hybridization made in a controlled breeding program in West Chicago, Ill. The female parent was 7GRT-124B, a plant with a single, salmon-coral with freckle flower and medium green foliage with light zone. 7-GRT-124B is a proprietary breeding line not commercially available. It is maintained solely for breeding purposes. 7GRT-124B has relatively good branching (2.0-2.5 branches/10 cm pot). Designer Scarlet displays 1.5-2.5 branches in a 10 cm pot. The male parent of BFP-27 was Tango (U.S. Plant. Pat. No. 5,933), a dark foliaged, compact plant with bright red flowers. Tango maintains stable chlorophyll during shipping.
Designer Scarlet is easily distinguished in appearance from the pollen parent Tango. Designer Scarlet has medium to light green foliage (137A, 137B) whereas Tango has dark green foliage (136A,136B), Tango exhibits branching of 1.0-2.0 branches in a 10 cm pot compared to 1.5-2.5 branches for Designer Scarlet.
Designer Scarlet was discovered and selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross by the inventor in a controlled environment in Santa Maria, Calif.
The first act of asexual reproduction of Designer Scarlet was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were taken from the initial selection in a controlled environment in Santa Maria, Calif. by a technician supervised by the inventor. Horticultural examination of selected units demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for Designer Scarlet are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.
Designer Scarlet has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary significantly with variations in environment such as temperature, light intensity, and day length. The following observations, measurements and comparisons describe plants grown in Arroyo Grande, Calif. under greenhouse conditions which approximate those generally used in commercial practice.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be basic characteristics of Designer Scarlet which in combination distinguish this geranium as a new and distinct cultivar. These traits include basal branching without growth regulators, a clean peduncle, and an orange scarlet semi-double form with petaloids.
Of the many commercial cultivars known to the present inventor, the most similar in comparison to Designer Scarlet is Red Satisfaction (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,641). Designer Scarlet and Red Satisfaction have a similar orange scarlet color although general tonality is somewhat different. Both plants have non-imbricate petals and produce approximately the same number of flowers/umbel. Red Satisfaction has weak peduncles due to a vestigial node which causes flowers to lodge during wind and rain. In contrast, Designer Scarlet is more wind and rain tolerant because of its stronger peduncle and lack of vestigial node. The BFP-27 plant is also somewhat shorter and narrower than Red Satisfaction.
Designer Scarlet has 1-3 petaoloids 1.8-2.2 cm long and 0.5-1.0 cm wide compared with 3-5 petaloids 1.5-2.0 cm long and 0.2-0.7 cm wide for Red Satisfaction. The petals and petaloids of Designer Scarlet are broader and flatter than those of Red Satisfaction.